"We were such good friends once!"
"Once--once?" she asked maliciously. "Once Cain and Abel were a happy
family. When was that once?"
"Two years ago. What talks we had then! I had so looked forward to your
coming again. It was the alluring thing in my life, your arrival," he
went on; "but something came between."
His tone nettled her. He talked as if he had some distant claim on her.
"Something came between?" she repeated slowly, mockingly. "That sounds
melodramatic indeed. What was it came between--a coach-and-four, or a
grand army?"
"Nothing so stately," he answered, piqued by her tone: "a filibuster and
his ragamuffins."
"Ragamufins would be appreciated by Monsieur Valmond's followers, spoken
at the four corners," she answered.
"Then I'll change it," he said: "a ragamuffin and his filibusters."
"The 'ragamuffin' always speaks of his enemies with courtesy, and the
filibusters love their leader," was her pointed rejoinder.
"At half a dollar a day," he answered sharply.
"They get that much from His Excellency, do they?" she asked in real
surprise.
Pages:
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37